


Human Nature (To Have a Family)

by Krasimer



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Everyone's kid in others, Gen, How do you deal with a big family when you didn't have one before?, Kravitz and Taako adopted Angus, M/M, Smart Angus McDonald, Taako is a good dad, Taako's kid in legal terms, The seven adopted the kid the moment they could
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 17:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16022249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: Angus has a new family.They do their best.





	Human Nature (To Have a Family)

  1. Magnus



Angus had been coming home from school.

Some man had popped out of an alley and dragged him into it, shoving him against the wall and putting a hand over his mouth. “You’re going to give me any money you’re carrying,” he told the boy detective. “And then you’re going to die.”

Looking up at him with wide-eyes, Angus studied him, trying to figure out if he knew the man from anywhere.

He’d left his dog at home that day, too. Magnus was in town for a few weeks and had wanted to see her. Angus had decided that leaving her at home to soak up time with her original owner and trainer had been better for Magnus – the man loved all of his dogs, even when they went to new homes.

Magnus would just have to re-home her, then.

If this was where Angus died, Magnus would have to find her a new home. Or just take her back as one of his.

Closing his eyes, Angus waited for the knife that the man held to strike.

Instead, however, the man’s nails scratched across Angus’s cheek as he was thrown backwards, tumbling end-over-end and slamming into a wall. “Hey,” he heard someone else speak, frantic and worried. “Ango, look at me,” hands landed on his shoulders, jostling him gently. “Ango, look at me!”

Angus opened his eyes again.

Magnus was standing in front of him, looking scared and angry at the same time. “Hey, kiddo,” he said sheepishly, grinning as he put his hands on Angus’s cheeks, lifting gently. “You good?”

“Yes sir,” Angus felt his heart beating quickly, faster than normal.

“Good,” Magnus nodded. “Wait here for a second, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” Angus said again.

Magnus moved out of his field of vision and Angus slid down the wall, barely even aware of the slight jolt of pain as he landed on the ground. A cold snout pushed into his face, sniffing hurriedly, followed by a tongue washing over the slightly-bloodied marks on his cheek. Numbly, Angus reached out and curled his fingers into the golden fur, pulling the dog closer. It was Cleveland, his dog. She made a sad sound and he hugged her tight, hiding his face in her fur.

Tears ran down his cheeks and vanished into her coat.

“Hey, Angus,” Magnus sat down on the ground next to him, grinning reassuringly after a minute. “First fight! Well, one-on-one. Not too bad of a reaction. Freezing up a little is pretty normal, especially for a magic user. Physical isn’t really your thing.” He reached out and ruffled Angus’s hair. “Just means I’m going to teach you some things while I’m here.” He ruffled Cleveland’s fur with his other hand. “And she is _such a good dog_ ,” he baby-talked at her.

“How’d you even find me?”

Magnus stopped. “Look, kid,” he made a face. “I know, back when my memories weren’t there, that I kind of treated you badly. I just want you to know that I will always come help you when you need me. That’s what family does.” He smiled again, returning his hand to Cleveland’s head. “She smelled you and took off. When I followed her, I found you. Like I said, she’s such a good dog!” he looked at Angus. “I trained her specifically to help you.”

He stood up and offered his hands to Angus.

Angus took them and did the same, nearly falling over again when he stood up. “Oop,” Magnus caught him. “Little shaky on the dismount. Here,” he picked Angus up, carrying him like a child on his hip. “There we go. Time to go home.”

Pressing his face against the shoulder in front of him, Angus nodded.

 

After the incident, Magnus taught Angus how to handle a dagger, how to disarm someone wielding one, and how to damage someone who was trying to kill him.

There was something like pride on his face when Angus smiled up at him.

 

  1. Lup



Fire burned at Lup’s fingertips and Angus watched as she dropped it into the fireplace.

“You want to learn, kid?” Lup asked him without looking at him, still focused on getting the fire going. Winter was settling in on Faerun. “I know you’re at Lucas’s school, learning things there, but I could teach you some evocation.”

“No thank you,” he said politely. “But it is fascinating to watch.”

“Fire’s cool,” she finally turned to look at him, grinning the same gap-toothed smile that Taako had. Hers was a bit more feral, but it felt familiar all the same. “Protective, comforting, warm, destructive. Creative, too. Metal workers can tell you that,” she shrugged one shoulder before leaning back on her hands, her legs spread out in front of her and crossed, one over the other. “What are you studying?”

“A couple of things,” he looked at his homework, shuffling the papers around for a moment. “Divination, mostly.”

“Gonna make a career of the detective thing?” Lup rolled forward, effortlessly getting to her feet. “Fuck yeah.” She walked over, dropping her hands onto the edge of the table as she leaned over to look at his work. “Contacting other planes might also come in handy. Considering – well, considering you’ve already got a connection to at least one of them.” When he looked up at her, confused, Lup grinned again and ruffled his hair. “Kravitz, kid.”

“Oh, yeah!” Angus smiled at her. “I have a connection with the Astral plane already. Hm,” his smile turned into a frown as he shuffled through his work again. “I might be able to schedule in taking a class on the different planes next year – Lucas does offer it.”

Lup laughed. “There you go.” She hugged him, affectionate and warm, and he leaned into it. They stayed there for a moment, her chin on his head, before she took a deep breath and squeezed him a little tighter. “Kid?” she leaned back and gripped his chin lightly, tilting him up. “I just…Wanted to say thank you.”

Angus did not know much about Lup. He suspected that her name was short for something but he did not know what it might have been – she always was just Lup, even to her brother. From having known her brother, however, Angus knew what it must be taking for her to say that. “What for?”

“I was…Aware.” Lup hedged her words, holding his face between her hands, gentle and careful, like she wasn’t quite sure how much pressure could be applied. “When my brother was without his memories. Inside the Umbra staff. I fought for that awareness but it never approached anything resembling control and it was a barebones sort of consciousness.” Her face softened as she looked off into the distance. “But I was aware of some things. Your cookies – I did apologize for that, but I wanted to say it again. I was able to be aware in a way during the day they met you.

“You helped my brother.” Lup sighed, covering her face. “In ways I can’t even begin to explain. In ways I shouldn’t explain without him giving me permission.”

Looking at her, Angus saw her brother for a moment. Normally, the two of the were tied together as twins only in the way they looked, less so now that Taako had some of his beauty stolen from him. Normally, Angus only saw Lup when he looked at her, the elven woman who was basically his aunt at this point.

Right now, he saw the parts of her personality that stretched over into her brother’s and the parts of Taako that linked in to her personality.

He wasn’t the best boy detective for nothing, after all.

“Taako is never at his best when he is alone,” Lup said quietly. “And thanks to your persistence, your fervent need to learn magic and have those three idiots around you, you made sure he was never alone. Not even when he was at his most prickly.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Lup laughed and stood up, nudging his chin with a curled knuckle. “Good on you, kid. Just wanted to say thanks.”

Warmth flared in Angus’s heart as surely as if Lup had set him on fire. “Yes ma’am!”

He could read between the lines. He knew what Lup meant went she said things like that. It had been hard, at first, finding the meaning in between the words, but he had managed it: Thank you for being there, thank you for being there for him, thank you for being a part of his family when I couldn’t be.

Thank you for making sure I still had a brother to come back to.

 

  1. Davenport



Davenport, for all the time that Angus had spent around him as a member of the BOB, was still something of a mystery.

Angus knew he liked the ocean – that was easily gleaned from the times when the gnome was on shore, briefly, in an area near the rest of them. He always seemed so much healthier, these days – and he knew Davenport liked sailing. He knew the gnome drank tea with a splash of milk and didn’t care much about what sweetener was put into it. Angus knew that the sweetener didn’t really matter all that much, knew that it was a habit left over from a century of different worlds, where sometimes sugar was made from different things and sometimes there was none to be found.

He knew that the gnome liked Merle, and that Merle liked Davenport.

(There had been a world, Taako had told him once, where marriages were the only thing that had mattered to the governing people. Taako had pretended to get hitched to Magnus, Lucretia had dug up a ring, Barry and Lup had gone right for it, and Merle and Davenport—

Merle and Davenport had toed carefully around each other for a week before Davenport had presented their Cleric with a ring and an unsure smile.

Angus liked the stories like that – the ones where they’d found the light and the year had gone okay.)

But there were very little concrete things that Angus knew about Davenport. He liked the sea, sailing, tea, and Merle. Despite them having been coworkers for a time, they had never really spent time together and…

And what?

Angus sighed and curled his textbook a little closer, chewing on his bottom lip as he tried to focus on his studies. Davenport was a part of the Seven. Angus had been, formally and officially, adopted by Taako and Kravitz about two months ago. Taako and the others, except for Merle, tended to call Davenport various nicknames. One of those was, ‘Dad’n’port’.

Those were the solid facts.

If he was a part of the family, adopted and legal, then what was Davenport to him?

As if summoned by his thoughts, a hand tugged gently on the spine of his book and pulled it away from his face. Davenport stood in front of the couch Angus was sitting on, an eyebrow raised. One of the first things he had done, once everything had settled down, was pulled out the braid he’d kept his hair in while working at the BOB. Instead, he wore it in an updo of sorts, wrapped around itself a couple of times on the back of his head. “Angus?” the gnome’s voice was quiet, one of the ways he’d managed to get a handle on the stutter he’d been left with. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Angus nodded slowly, uncurling himself from the arm of the couch and sitting up. Immediately, breathing came easier, and Angus winced. He’d been in that position for too long.

Davenport frowned, the expression carving an even deeper path on his face when Angus rubbed at his eyes. They hurt a little, probably too much time spent reading, too long spent focusing on small print on large pages. “You sure?” he asked, both eyebrows raised now.

Making a face, Angus sighed. “My eyes just hurt a little, sir.”

After a moment of almost-awkward silence between them, Davenport pressed both palms of his hands flat against the page of the book. The magic he channeled left a taste in the air and when it cleared, Angus looked down at the textbook in his lap. The writing was bigger, now, an illusion spell hovering around the words – when he turned the page, the words shifted automatically. “Sir?”

“I think you may need new glasses,” Davenport ducked to meet his eyes, studying his face for a second. “Th-those are the same ones I’ve seen you wear the entire time I’ve known y-you.” He made a displeased noise, took a deep breath, then spoke again, each word said carefully so he could control it as much as possible. “I recognize that expression from when Lucretia would need a new pair of reading glasses.” He gestured down at the book. “You can probably finish your studies for t-tonight, but tomorrow we should take you to a Fantasy Lens Crafters or s-something.”

Angus blinked a couple of times, then looked up to read the calendar Taako had put on the wall after some convincing from Kravitz. Davenport was right – The print on it was too blurry for him to read.

He hadn’t even noticed the change.

“We’ll get it sorted,” Davenport reached up to pat gently at the top of Angus’s head.

“I think I was just too busy to notice, sir,” Angus stared down at his knees, curling his hands around the book. “Thank you.”

With a smile and a nod, Davenport started walking back towards what he had been doing before. As he watched the gnome move across the room, it occurred to him what relationship Davenport and he had. “Thanks Grampaport!”

Suddenly choking and spluttering, the gnome started laughing, his hands braced on his knees, and Angus joined in.

That wasn’t completely the right term for it, but Davenport and Merle both fell in between categories – Grandfather and Dad, Dad and Weird Uncle. And, Angus thought as he turned back to his book, Davenport could have a new nickname.

  1. Merle



Merle was sort of hard to get used to, when it came to the family Angus had found.

The dwarf hadn’t treated him the best, back when his memories weren’t in place. There had been teasing and taunting and tormenting and Angus had been sort of fond of him but it hadn’t been a shared feeling. Merle was getting to be a better father, especially now that he’d gotten his husband back, but there was still that awkwardness in approaching him.

But since the moment Davenport had realized Angus needed new glasses, it was like Merle had decided to use that as a reason to look after him a bit more.

He started including Angus in the lessons he taught to Mavis and Mookie, about which plants were safe to eat and which ones weren’t. Taught the three of them how to build shelters in forests, how to gather supplies from plants without offending. Quietly, without anyone really noticing, he gave Angus something no one had given him before: friends who were practically siblings, people he could spend time with that were roughly his own age.

With Merle watching over the three of them, they took a quick camping trip, a couple of days in the woods.

Taako had thrown a bit of a fit about it before packing an extra wand into Angus’s bag. The wand had been wrapped in a new jacket, the pockets filled with various little things he thought Angus might need. Tiny packets of spell ingredients, a stone of Farspeech and a backup stone just in case, a pendent that would summon Kravitz to just about anywhere.

(The only reason he knew that was because Kravitz had left a note with it.)

Merle just shook his head and patted Angus on the shoulder. “I’m not letting my grandkid die on what’s basically a long hiking trip,” he groused at an elf who wasn’t even there. “I’m not letting my kids die, why would I let Taako’s kid?”

Mavis stifled a laugh behind her hand, smiling up at Merle while also keeping Mookie from running off.

“I mean, I guess bein’ a dad does change your perspective,” Merle let his hand go still on Angus’s shoulder, frowning. His soulwood hand was tucked into a pocket, somehow still curled up on his hip anyway. “And, I mean, Taako hasn’t been a dad before. Not unless there’s a big secret he’s still hiding from us.”

After a few seconds of considering that idea, Merle shrugged and looked at Angus again. “Trust me, kid,” he smiled. “You’re going to be safe with me.”

He stepped away to tend to the fire, leaving Angus sitting next to Mavis and Mookie. “He worries about you, sometimes,” Mavis said in a soft voice, letting Mookie pull at her fingers in a repeating pattern. “He thinks you’re still afraid you’re going to get left out of things again. I heard him and Davenport talking about it.” She smiled, looking somehow so much like Merle for a moment. “He’s sorry about how he treated you, he just doesn’t know how to say it.”

“It wasn’t a good time for anyone,” Angus watched as she ruffled Mookie’s hair.

“Still,” she turned to her brother and raised an eyebrow as he pulled something out of his pocket, bringing it to his mouth and blowing into it. “Oh, he brought his panflute.”

Not knowing the words to say something was a thing Angus was familiar with. Words weren’t easy, sometimes, and being unsure of what to say was familiar in a way he hated. Merle had admitted, once, actually to Angus’s face, that he’d been afraid he would be pushed aside in favor of Angus.

That had been before the regaining of his memories, which would explain a lot of how Merle had treated him.

Angus watched as his weird-uncle/strange grandfather poked at the fire and set up a couple of sticks with marshmallows on the ends.

To him, all that mattered was that Merle was trying.

The cleric hadn’t really belonged to a true family since the memory loss, didn’t know how to handle having one. The fact that he was trying seemed to be good enough for Mavis and Mookie.

So it was good enough for him.

He would try right back.

 

  1. Taako



“Yo, kid,” Taako plopped down on the floor next to Angus and leaned down to meet his eyes. “Cha’boy heard, from Lucas-nerd himself, that you got in a fight today.”

Angus curled over his books a little further, nodding minutely and refusing to meet his father’s eyes.

“You wanna talk ‘bout it?” Taako leaned back a ways, pressing the heels of his palms into the carpet and leaning back on his arms, fussing a moment with the summery dress he’d chosen to wear that day. “I mean…At my school, fights are just a thing, no sweat, no big deal. At your special nerd school, that’s not supposed to happen unless it’s a duel or something for the sake of practical experience. Teachers watching, maybe taking bets, that sort of thing.”

Angus nodded again, his shoulders curling up around his ears.

“So…” Taako trailed off, looking around the room at small details he’d probably memorized a billion times already. “You still don’t want to talk about it? ‘Cause I can keep talking. I can keep talking _all day_. You know I can, you know I will.”

Lowering his shoulder a fraction, Angus glanced at him, wincing like a dog being scolded as he did.

Quicker than the mongooses he’d trained with, Taako whipped forward and took his son’s chin in his hand, staring with a blank face at the bruises surrounding Angus’s left eye. After a moment, both of them just staring at each other, a pure and almost terrifying rage took over Taako’s face, his eyes narrowing and his mouth pinching into a flat line, his lips white. “KRAVITZ!” he called directionlessly, only turning his head so that the words flew over his shoulder. His eyes were still pinned on Angus’s face. “KRAV!”

A portal ripped open in the living room, Angus’s other father running through it with his scythe in hand. “What is going on?”

It actually made Angus giggle, a little – Kravitz was using his work accent.

“Krav,” Taako said in the kind of voice that had made many a person wary of what the elf was going to do next, especially when paired with the empty hand clenching like he was about to summon the KrebStar to him. “Either you go kill a kid or I fuckin’ will.”

“Taako, do not kill children,” Kravitz’s shoulders dropped down, out of the defensive position he’d had himself in, and he smiled fondly at his husband. “Children do not need—”

“They bruised his fuckin’ _face_ , Krav!” Taako spun around on his knees, still holding Angus’s chin gently in his hand. “Look! Look what those little—”

“Taako,”

“No, Krav, Lucas called us in earlier to talk about the fight and say that the kid’s parents wanted to have a big meeting tomorrow,” Taako’s face was pale with the anger he was fighting back, his free hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist. “I figured it was just their shit-ass kid taking a shot at our boy and Ango hitting back!” he gestured towards Angus. “Instead, I found _our boy_ sitting down here with his textbooks and hiding his face!”

Kravitz sent his scythe back to wherever he kept it when he didn’t need it. “Angus?” he moved across the room to drop to his knees on the ground, folding his hands calmly in his lap. “Would you mind telling us what happened?”

Angus sighed and made himself sit up, pushing his books to one side and bringing his knees to his chest. “His name’s Lerren,” he muttered. “And he got angry that I wouldn’t do his work for him. And that I exposed him when he planted a prank in a teacher’s office. And…A few other things.” He dropped his chin to his knees, looking away from both of his fathers’ and sighing again. “He claimed it was an accident and that I’d hit him back after he accidentally smacked me with his bag.”

“Let me guess,” Taako scowled. “His parents will believe him?”

“Probably,” Angus groaned and shook his head. “I just…Didn’t know what to do, sirs.”

Taako winced and took a moment to count to ten – he refused to become Magnus, in this. No rushing in, not for Taako, no sir – but Angus only fell back on calling them ‘Sirs’ when he was majorly freaked out about something.

When he felt marginally calmer, Taako reached out with both hands and pulled Angus against his chest. “Listen here, Bubbelah, and listen good: They ain’t got shit to say that I would believe over my own boy. I kept the world from ending with you at my side, you fought with us to keep Hungry John, Vore Cloud, at bay. Even if they don’t believe a word you say, I can and will always believe in you.” He looked down for a moment and smiled slightly when Angus pressed his face against his chest, tightly-wound curls pressed flat against his head. “You’re my boy, got it?”

“Yeah,” Angus nodded, his voice shaking in the way that Taako had come to associate with tears building up.

Kravitz smiled at the both of them and pulled at Taako’s shoulder until they both fell sideways into him. It wasn’t the most perfect maneuver, they ended up in a pile on the floor, but Angus was held between them both. Their son curled close to both of them and Taako met Kravitz’s eyes over the top of his head.

There would be _retribution_ for the bruises on the boy detective’s face.

 

The parent conference, the next day, took place in Lucas’s office.

Taako and Kravitz made sure to arrive early, to make sure the other parents knew what exactly they were walking into and which family they had pissed off.

The rest of the Seven had decided to tag along and wait out in the hallway.

Angus, still bruised and having trouble seeing out of one eye, was sitting in the chair between Taako and Kravitz. His hands were curled around the edge of the seat, his gaze focused on the floor between his feet.

When the parents of Lerren Yook walked in, the mother with a hand on her son’s shoulder, Taako glanced over and narrowed his eyes at them. “So this is the brat that put bruises on my boy,” he said, loud enough for the whole room to know _exactly_ what kind of mood he was in. Behind his desk, out of the corner of his eye, Taako saw Lucas wince. “Nice going – What, did they run out of manners when they were handing out whatever it is you think you’ve got that makes you so special?”

Lerren, for his part in things, glanced at Angus and then back to Taako with eyes wide enough that the wizard could see whites all the way around.

“ _Excuse_ me?” the father of the brat spoke up, then fell silent when he realized who had spoken. “Ah…You’re Taako.”

“Yes, yes, from TV, we all know,” Taako waved him off. “What I want to know is why your kiddo there put _bruises_ on my son’s face.” He dropped a hand onto Angus’s shoulder. “Because, let me tell you, Ango here wouldn’t hit back unless it was a life or death situation. Trust me,” he laughed dryly. “We’ve been in those and he still felt _guilty_ about fighting to save his own life.”

The mother and father of Lerren looked like they wanted to argue with him but both of them held their tongues.

“And,” Kravitz added smoothly, coming around to Taako’s side to present a unified front. “Our son has bruises so vicious that his eyesight is compromised. Your son, meanwhile, has not a mark on him.” He narrowed his red eyes at them. “Are you certain you’ve got the story correct? I would suggest you check before you accuse my child of something that would absolutely be out of character for him.”

The Yook parents turned towards their son, eyes wide. Lerren looked back at both of his parents, his face flushed an angry almost-purple. “I didn’t know who his parents were!” he defended himself. “And he keeps telling on me!”

“Oh?” his mother narrowed her eyes at him. “And what is there to tell?”

Taako grinned, victorious and almost evil. “Angus mentioned something about a prank being planted in a teacher’s office, said something about a list of offenses…”

Lerren looked up at him, pale with terror.

“Sorry kid,” Taako bent slightly at the waist towards him. “But much like you, I’m not going to pull my punches. You hit my kid without a reason other than you were angry at him because he’s doing what he does best – Ango is smart and he’s a detective.” He grinned so that he looked a little feral, an expression he’d picked up at some point in the century of traveling he’d done. “And you really shouldn’t have hit him.”

With a whimper, Lerren pressed himself into the back of his chair, his little legs peddling to try and get himself even further back.

“Taako, Kravitz,” Lucas raised an eyebrow at the Yooks’. “I’m sorry for making you come in, I know you’re both exceedingly busy. I do believe you can, if you would like, go home now.” He gestured towards the door. “Give the others my regards, will you?” he smiled when Kravitz nodded. “And remind Lucretia that I wanted to talk about the application of science and magic on the theory of trans-planar travel.”

“Yes sir,” Taako saluted him briefly and took Angus’s hand.

The three of them left the office, smiling at the small storm brewing behind them for the bully – And when they got home, Taako rallied and immediately taught Angus how to fight dirty.

 

  1. Barry



How was he supposed to approach a necromancer, exactly?

Barry was nice enough, he was Lup’s husband and that automatically made him awesome, but it was hard to approach him. Since Taako and Kravitz had adopted him, Angus had been trying to figure out his interactions with the various members of his new family.

And Barry was difficult to figure out.

Necromancy worried him a little, made him a bit uncomfortable, but Barry was a nice guy and he told jokes when he thought Angus needed to hear them.

Barold Hallwinter, whose name had been forever altered by his wife and her brother to Barry Bluejeans. He would joke with Kravitz about skeletons and things, would kiss Lup’s cheek and curl an arm around Taako’s neck, hugging him close for a second. Of all the people Angus had seen recovering from a century of running from a nightmare, Barry was the one who seemed like he had needed the recovery the most.

Taako’s personality hadn’t changed much, he’d just gotten better at letting others in.

Lucretia had been a surprise, but Angus hadn’t known enough about her to see that much of a difference.

Davenport hadn’t had enough of himself left for the difference to be anything but world-shaking.

He hadn’t even known Barry when the man hadn’t remembered – but he had seen the look on his face when Lup had returned. It had been the look of a man who thought he’d lost everything only to find it again. The sort of look Angus had seen on the faces of children reunited with their parents after being lost in the crowd, the looks he’d seen on faces at the train stations of people returning from long journeys away.

The look of utterly heart-wrenching, tear-stained relief and desperate happiness of a world made right again.

Before he’d met Barry and Lup and Kravitz and everyone else, Angus had only ever known necromancy to be a nightmarish thing. Something to be afraid of, the people who practiced it to be avoided. The closest he had ever come to necromancy had been investigating it on one of his earliest cases – and narrowly avoiding ending up on the end of a knife.

But Barry Bluejeans was a little like him. He made silly jokes just because he thought someone needed to hear them, he offered to bring home trinkets and stuff from around the world, he sometimes brought books home for Angus from so far away that Angus would probably never have gotten access to them himself. He—

Was currently in the kitchen, an army of ingredients and mixing bowls perched around him, a denim apron slung over his neck and tied in a neat bow at his back.

“Sir?” Angus paused for a moment, blinking a couple of times, then stepped forward. “What’s going on?

He’d been told that Barry couldn’t cook to save his own life. Taako, Lup, _and_ Davenport had warned him about what to do if he saw the man trying. This, however, didn’t appear to be cooking, exactly, this was baking.

“Lup and Taako are having some sibling time that ended up being together-nap-time,” Barry glanced up from the bowls in front of him, smiling as he leaned his arms on the counter and set his knife down. “I have exactly one thing I can make, foodwise.” He gestured at the bowls. “I memorized the recipe when I was a kid – about your age, actually – and I make it for Lup on our anniversary, on their birthday, and when…” he winced, glanced at Angus again, then nodded. “When they aren’t exactly feeling great.”

Together-nap-time usually meant that Taako and Lup had both been having nightmares and that they both needed to know their sibling was still alive.

Still there.

“Oh,” Angus pulled out one of the breakfast bar-stools and hopped up into it, letting his feet dangle as he leaned on his edge of the countertop. “What is it?”

“A cake,” Barry smiled at him. “Do you want to help?”

“If there’s anything I can do,” Angus nodded. “I like doing what I can to help Taako.”

Barry chuckled. “He’s your dad, of course you do.” He grabbed one of the bowls and handed it off to Angus, along with a few small bottles of liquid. “Okay, so, I need eight drops of each of those added in together, stir it, tell me when you’re done.”

“What are they?”

“Those first bottles are the flavoring that goes into the frosting and the coloration for the same,” Barry jerked his chin towards another bowl. “The rest of the frosting is going in there, I’ve just always found it easier to mix the liquids in a different bowl and add it in later. Might not be the proper method, but even Taako hasn’t ever complained about it,” his smile grew bigger as he watched Angus mix them together. “When you’re done with that, do you want to shred some chocolate?”

“Alright,” Angus slid the bowl back towards him, accepting a small-but-sharp knife and a cutting board with a brick of dark chocolate sitting on it. “Just into crumbles or something else?”

“Sort of…Shavings? I guess?” Barry shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve never really known the right name for it, but that’s how I remember it. Yeah,” he nodded when Angus tested a small corner. “That’s right. Exactly like that. Oh, here,” he bent down and pulled something out of a drawer, leaning over to hang it on Angus’s neck.

It was another apron, embroidered with mushrooms and plants across the pocket on the front. “Taako made it for Merle on the occasion that he cooks, but he doesn’t do that often and it should keep you from getting anything on your shirt.”

Angus nodded, his tongue poking out between his teeth as he focused on the knife in his hand and the block of chocolate in front of him.

“Barry?” a voice called from outside the house. If Angus had been paying attention, he would have been able to identify the speaker as Magnus. “What’re you doing right now?”

“Baking a cake with my nephew!” Barry called back.

Magnus’s laugh was loud, carrying through the house. “When the both of you have a minute, can you come here? Got something for each of you!” he went quiet after a few more seconds, a humming starting up as he made his way inside with whatever it was he’d brought home for his family.

  1. Lucretia



She had been visiting Lucas.

That had been the thing, she’d been visiting Lucas and repairing the bridge between them. He had been her friend, before, even when he’d been hiding his secrets, and she had lost enough friends to last a lifetime.

Several lifetimes, actually.

But Lucretia had been visiting, that was the important thing to note, and she had spotted Angus out on the soccer field. From what little she knew of the sport, the boy was good. He played fairly and carefully, making sure not to exclude his teammates and making certain that they each got a turn. He was going to grow up well, she thought.

Taako had adopted him only a handful of months before, eight months or so, but she could see how easily the child had slipped into their lives.

Angus was kind and personable, the sort of son most people would adore having. He got wonderful grades, made friends easily, and was just generally a good person. He adored his new family and, from what she had gleaned when speaking to all of them, they adored him in turn. The seven birds, plus a few new ones. A growing family finally putting down roots after a century of running.

(She had, herself, been ready to absolutely ruin somebody’s life when she had gotten the call about Angus being bullied.)

Lucretia watched as Angus scored, then took off across the field with his arms in the air, being cheered on by his teammates. He had settled in well, adapted easily to the situation, then had grown from there. He adored people, especially those who were kind to him in turn.

With a smile on her face, Lucretia said goodbye to Lucas, watching him as he wandered back to his office. When she turned back to the field, the team seemed to be packing up their things to head out for the day. Angus was speaking to another child, a gnome girl who wore her hair in double buns on the back of her head. When he finished the conversation with her, he turned and spotted Lucretia.

The bright grin on his face was enough to make her heart melt a little, especially when paired with the way he ran towards her. “Hello!” he squeaked the word out as he wrapped his arms around her in a tight but quick hug.

Lucretia laughed and patted the top of his head. “I suppose this means I am the one walking you home today,” she laughed again, ruffling his hair. This was Taako’s adopted son, the child of the elf she still very much considered to be one of her brothers, even if he still treated her with detached emotions. “You should grab your things, I think.”

“Yes please,” Angus nodded, all bright eyes and smiles. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Madame Director. Did you come to talk to Lucas, today?”

“I did,” she nodded. “He wanted to talk about his theories of contacting and even visiting the other planes and worlds.” Lucretia took a deep breath, then nodded again. “Such as the one we came from originally.”

“Oh,” Angus reached under the nearby bench and pulled out a bag, swapping out his sports-goggles for his regular glasses. “Are you ever going to go back?”

There was something in the way he said it, something that told her she should be careful about answering the question. “Perhaps one day,” she settled onto the bench next to his bag, meeting his eyes. “But, Angus?” Lucretia waited until he met her eyes. “Not for a very long time. Maybe not ever. If I do, it would be a quick visit. My home, the one I came from, hasn’t been my home in a very long time. A century of fighting the Hunger will do that,” she sighed. “None of us really belong there, anymore. I have actually talked to the others about this.”

Davenport had shaken his head, Merle had laughed like it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

Lup had snorted so hard that Lucretia had thought she’d burst a blood vessel in her nose, at first.

None of the others had ever voiced a want to return to the place they had come from.

Taako had stared at her for a minute before shaking his head and returning to whatever it was he’d been cooking at the time. No garlic, no chicken, baby steps and all that, but something to feed to his family and know they’d been well taken care of.

“Not even Taako wants to go back,” Lucretia told Angus, watching as his small shoulders relaxed.

After a few more minutes of him rifling through his bag, drinking some of his water and wiping his forehead off with a small towel, Angus zipped his bag shut and slung it over his shoulder. “Can we go home, now?”

Lucretia stood up and held out her hand.

Angus took it.

They walked together, chattering about various things, the classes that Angus wanted to take and the modifications the bureau was undergoing, everything else they could think of. 

The house, when they arrived, was bright and warm.

Taako stood at the door, waiting for his son to return. When he saw Lucretia, he hesitated for a moment, staring at her. “Go on in, kid,” he ruffled Angus’s hair as he went past. He continued to stare at her, then seemed to come to a decision. “Come on,” he said after a decent length of silence. “Enough food for everyone in the family, get your ass in here. I hate having empty spaces at the table.”

He held the door open and Lucretia stepped inside, joining the rest of her family.

It may have been Taako and Lup’s house, but it was always home to them.

 

  1. Kravitz



“What, you think sneaking around and _spying_ on folk is a good way to get things done?”

Angus looked around himself and, once again, wondered how he got into these sorts of situations. This time, he hadn’t even been on a case, hadn’t even been intending to look into something – he had just been walking Cleveland and thinking about what he was going to do for a practical magic assignment.

“I wasn’t trying to sneak around and spy on you,” he told the halfling plainly.

She shoved a dagger in his face and Angus sighed internally, getting ready to knock it out of her hands with the training Magnus had given him. The sigil on the handle of it made him pause and the internal sigh turned into an internal groan.

It was the same sigil that had been appearing around Faerun lately: a necromantic cult’s sigil.

Unfortunately, the pause gave the halfling woman time to follow the point of her knife. She slashed at his chest and he ducked back, whistling to Cleveland as he did. “C’mon girl!” he called to her, watching as she barreled between the halfling’s legs and knocking her over.

The half-elf man that was with her snarled and pulled out his own dagger, plunging into the fray as well.

“I can swear to you,” Angus huffed out the words, blocking the halfling from getting a hit to his chest. “I was just walking my dog!”

“I know who you are!” she screeched. “You’re that boy detective! Angus McDonald! If you’re here, it _obviously_ means you’re hired to find us!”

“Or that I _live in Faerun!_ ” Angus swept a leg under her, then kicked out with his other leg as she started to fall. “And I go to school here! I was just. Walking. My. Dog!” he sprung up from the ground and shoved his palms into the half-elf’s chest, forcing him back. “I am _going home_ today and you are not going to prevent that!”

“ _No,_ ” came a new voice, one Angus was relieved to hear. “They are _not._ ”

Kravitz stepped out of his portal, in between Angus and his attackers. His scythe was raised up, ready to strike, and his face was currently a skull. Behind him loomed a larger shape, seeming to look down at Angus’s attackers from the hollows where eyes should have been in the raven skull that made up their head.

Angus had only seen the Raven Queen appear on his plane once before.

With a flick of his wrist, Kravitz pulled their souls from their bodies as the Raven Queen held them still, sending them through the portal he had opened and into the Eternal Stockade. When that was done, both he and the Raven Queen turned to look at Angus.

_Child._

“Angus.”

“I didn’t actually end up here because I was investigating,” Angus cut them both off at the pass, bowing to the Raven Queen. “I really was just walking Cleveland and she stopped to relieve herself on this grass and they popped up out of the alleyway!”

“Oh,” Kravitz shifted awkwardly. “Well…Good.”

_I am fond of you, little one. Do not wander into my realm early._

Her words were followed by the distinct impression of a smile and Angus nodded eagerly before he saluted her. “I’ll do my best, ma’am!”

_Good._

With that, she returned to her realm, the portal closing behind her. Kravitz watched her go before he turned back to Angus and reached out to pull him into a one-armed hug. “You have no idea how much fear filled me when I saw them with you.” He muttered, pressing the edge of his chin into Angus’s hair. “Both because you might have died and because _Taako would have killed me_ if one of my targets had killed you. Or even hurt you.”

Laughing, Angus tucked himself under Kravitz’s chin, allowing himself to be hugged even tighter. “Would I be able to get a portal home, dad?”

“Yes,” Kravitz’s response was immediate. “As if I would let you walk home alone after that.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just...Stumped on titles and descriptions, today. Anyway, have the story that didn't want to be written.


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